House United

What a worker-owned restaurant is doing about the housing crisis.

COLLECTIVE SOUL: The Red and Black’s John Langley (far right) approached Emily Kamm about using the cafe’s second floor for a housing co-op. Daniel Wilson (middle) plans to live in one of the newly created units. - IMAGE: Jessica Stambach

In a city with an estimated shortage of 20,000 affordable
housing units, every new project in Portland helps, even if it’s only a
few units.

“Affordable housing
is really needed, and it’s something a lot of people don’t have access
to,” says Emily Kamm, whose rent for a one-bedroom apartment in
Southeast Portland’s Buckman neighborhood eats up about 60 percent of
her $1,400 monthly income as a primary advocate at a domestic violence
shelter.

Kamm has been working
for months with Portland Collective Housing, a member-owned,
resident-controlled housing nonprofit, to locate a space to establish a
new resident-managed housing cooperative.

“In
so many areas people can feel disempowered—their job doesn’t give them
autonomy or their landlord doesn’t respond to their concerns,” says
Kamm, 22. “Collectives and organizations that give control back to the
people are a really great model.”

That’s also the belief of the Red and Black Cafe, a vegan, worker-owned coffee bar and restaurant.

As reported in last
week’s Murmurs, the Red and Black wants to buy its building at 400 SE
12th Ave. and convert the second floor, now occupied by offices, into
low-income group housing for about a half-dozen people. The cafe will
continue to occupy the first floor.

Co-owner John Langley
says this week that the cafe has raised the $50,000 down payment
necessary to secure the purchase. In an owner-financed deal, the Red and
Black will pay $500,000 for the two-story, golden-yellow house, which
was built in 1874 as a hotel.

Langley approached
Kamm in October about using the second floor for her collective. Kamm
leapt at the offer. With help from PCH, she and other future residents
will launch their own housing nonprofit to manage the upstairs space.

“I think there is
absolutely a role for that kind of housing,” says Portland Housing
Bureau director Margaret Van Vliet. “Can they run into challenges like
any landlord? Sure. Owning real estate is a serious business, and it can
be hard sometimes, but if they’ve got a good model of making decisions
and sharing responsibility and doing it collaboratively without
government interference, I don’t see any reason a group like this can’t
have success.”

Though the recession
has driven up demand for affordable housing, Langley says the economic
climate didn’t drive this plan. Langley has lived since 2006 at a
PCH-owned house on North Mississippi Avenue (PCH also owns a house on
Southeast 25th Avenue). What distinguishes this cooperative model from
other forms of affordable housing, Kamm says, is that residents living
above the Red and Black will share cleaning duties, hold regular
meetings and make decisions based on consensus.

“People are already
sharing housing in order to save costs,” Kamm says. “But what is special
about a collective housing model is that people are coming into it
intentionally wanting to have processes in place for communication and
for decision-making.”

Most affordable
housing options in Portland are rentals, which are subject to rent
increases and ownership changes. PCH, as well as the new nonprofit that
plans to form above the Red and Black, say their model ensures
sustainable, affordable rents. Kamm expects rent to run $365 a month or
less for a room, with a maximum monthly contribution of $70 to cover
utilities and household supplies, including bulk food staples for the
shared kitchen.

Langley acknowledges
the impact of collectively owned housing co-ops in Portland remains
small. Getting the capital to buy buildings remains a significant
barrier—particularly when dealing with low-income residents, who can
contribute little to a start-up fund.

Entrenched
stereotypes are another obstacle, Langley says. The Red and Black
attracted national attention after kicking out a cop from its cafe in
May 2010, heightening perceptions of the cafe as a collection of
anarchist radicals. Kamm says others may hear the word “cooperative” and
imagine “Kumbaya”-humming hippies.

“We do run in a way
that is anarchist, but once you actually see how that works, it’s not
that weird,” Langley says. “People are doing this anyway without
labeling it that way. If they have house meetings and make decisions
together, that’s pretty much the same thing.”

"In the low usage areas, we found that our vehicles sit idle four times longer, ultimately affecting overall vehicle availability for the Portland membership base, as well as parking for the Portland community."

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